Gal*Gun Double Peace (Nintendo Switch) Review

Hotaka is having an ordinary day when suddenly, a blast of love energy takes him out from behind, the work of a pesky trainee angel who was trying to outgun a sneaky demon. He awakes to all the girls around him confessing their love to him. The angel quickly comes to hie to explain what happened and how he needs to avoid these girls and find the one he truly loves before the love energy runs out or face being alone forever, devoid of love. So begins the high-tail ecchi antics. Players should prepare to have their eyes bleached as they are swarmed by schoolgirls all vying for their love.

Naturally, as this is a game, there is gameplay. This is split into three or four types of gameplay segments. First, there are the shooting stages - first person "light-gun"-esque maps where the movement is on-rails, allowing players free reign to aim, zoom, and blast their way through. The shooting has some nuances not seen on all arcade-y shooters. Each girl has a "weak point" be it head, chest, waist, or legs.

A shot to the right area will take them down straight away. Obviously, this sounds barbaric but do not fret, this isn't a real gun with bullets it's a pheromone gun… so basically each "kill" is actually "pleasure" - oof, this is hard to describe. To make matters more risqué there is also doki-doki mode where the player engages in touching mini-games with either the main cast during the story or to randoms during the levels. These scenes are extremely perverse and tailored to a specific type of person it seems.

The rest of the gameplay is far more normal with the usual visual novel style presentation. For the most part this presents a normal anime style story with simple motives and at its core moral about finding the right partner. Hotaka meets up with two older childhood friends, one his age, one younger, and through their interactions can essentially partner up with either. These choices naturally affect the story path and the ending. It also dictates which character will be engaged in the 'doki-doki' mode scenes. This really means this: don't play this game on public transport as it's probably going to draw looks of pure vitriol.

Adjacent to the other two gameplay styles is the side quest/menu system which is shown between levels. This allows for a degree of interaction with other girls and classmates by way of text messages that present extra objectives that if completed offer a range of extra information and story that fleshes out the world. This is combined with a shop that uses the points gained during play. Here it's possible to buy items for support as well as unlock options for customising the appearance of the girls. Customisation is quite well rounded in this game with a huge supply of costumes and accessories, many of which are um… somewhat fetishized like dressing the characters in ribbons. To each their own!

Graphically things are great, the art style is clean and clear, offering up a space where "enemies" are not obscured by the environment (except for when it's done on purpose). Animations are very smooth and offer a sense of character both on bodies and faces, helping ground the characters in their world. The visual makeup is also excellent. Character models are detailed and colourful, which they must be as often the player can see through clothing to underwear when zooming. The environments are a bit on the blurry side on Switch, but it offers the game a dreamlike quality that perhaps help excuse some of the blatant sexual content on show. Music isn't the game's strongest point, but it can correctly accentuate scenes reinforcing the mood. For example, the sadder scenes have a great little music track that hits well.

There are few negatives to pull up, given the targeted audience this presents a much more tantalising experience that many others in the genre. Where things do slip up, however, is in performance. This is an improvement on the PlayStation Vita game which had very rough frame rates, but this version still suffers from stutters that make it hard to aim at times. It might have been cool for example for the developers to implement a Wii-like aiming mode with the Joycon.